Pedestrians cross Glenoaks Boulevard in Tacoma during a ceremony to dedicate the intersection of Glenoaks Boulevard and Vaughn Street in memory of Saul Lopez. On November 15, 2016, 15-year old Saul Lopez died in a collision on his way to school in Pacoima. Saul was riding his bicycle at the intersection of Glenoaks Boulevard and Vaughn Street when two trucks collided sending both vehicles through the crosswalk, hitting Saul and killing him. (Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Despite local cities’ ambitious goals to make their streets safer, the number of pedestrians dying in Southern California has risen for the last 10 years and the numbers continue to climb, surpassing the rate of fatalities from other traffic accidents, a new report found.

The number of people who were killed while walking on the streets or highways increased 27 percent from 2007 to 2016 nationwide, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association’s report, titled “Spotlight on Highway Safety: Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State,” released March 1. In the same period, other traffic deaths decreased by 14 percent, the study found.

Jeff Goertzen/SCNG

California led all states during the first half of 2017 with 352 pedestrian fatalities, as compared to one in both Hawaii and Wyoming, according to a partial review of last year’s first six months.

Researchers say the reasons vary, from more people walking to work to an increase in vehicle miles traveled. Also, the report correlates increases in pedestrian deaths in states that have legalized recreational marijuana and with the explosion of smartphone usage in the last 10 years. The latter leads to both distracted drivers and pedestrians looking at their phones instead of the roadway.

“Anyone who has eyes can see that both people behind the wheel and people on foot are looking at their phones. That is a recipe for disaster,” said Kara Macek, senior director of communications and programs for the group.

Los Angeles County ranked No. 1 in pedestrian deaths in 2016 with 265. Orange County ranked 10th with 63, while San Diego County was seventh at 71. All others in the Top 10 were from outside the Golden State.

The city of Los Angeles experienced 135 pedestrian deaths last year, according to Los Angeles Walks, an advocacy group fighting for safer streets. The city’s pedestrian fatalities increased 80 percent from 2015 to 2017, according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation “Vision Zero 2018” action plan, said Emilia Crotty, executive director of Los Angeles Walks.

LADOT spokesman Oliver Hou said that percentage includes provisional data from 2017 that had not been fully verified.

“You can feel how dangerous it is to walk here,” Crotty said Monday. “It is a 360-degree experience when you are walking. You’re always looking around, over your shoulder.”

L.A. has set aside additional resources for enforcement to catch speeders as part of the action plan, Hou said.

Crotty’s group advocates for structural changes to slow cars traversing city streets, as well as automated traffic tickets for speeders, something illegal in the state that the group wants to change. Crotty agreed with the suggestions from the study, including beacon-flashing crosswalks between far-apart, controlled intersections and more sidewalks and street islands to allow pedestrians to cross halfway at a time.

Some of the statistics in the report point to pedestrian behavior. For example, 33 percent of fatal pedestrian crashes involved a pedestrian who was intoxicated, which impairs judgment and reaction time.

Also, simply seeing being able to see a pedestrian is a factor because 75 percent of the deaths in 2016 occurred after dark. Only 20 percent of the fatalities took place at intersections, with the majority in travel lanes at non-intersections, such as on a highway or mid-block, the report found.

Using partial figures from 2017, the report projects the number of pedestrian deaths at 5,984 nationwide, nearly unchanged from 2016. The 10 largest cities saw deaths of people walking increase by 28 percent from 2015 to 2016. Those 10 and the number of deaths in 2016 from highest to lowest are: New York, 137; Los Angeles, 130; Chicago, 41; Houston, 79; Philadelphia, 43; Phoenix, 60; San Antonio, 64; San Diego, 42; Dallas, 57; and San Jose, 21. L.A. had the largest increase from 2015 to 2016, 45 deaths.

“We believe everyone has a right to have a safe place to walk,” Crotty said.

Steve Scauzillo covers environment and transportation for the Southern California News Group. He has won two journalist of the year awards from the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club and is a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing on environmental issues. Steve studied biology/chemistry when attending East Meadow High School and Nassau College in New York (he actually loved botany!) and then majored in social ecology at UCI until switching to journalism. He also earned a master's degree in media from Cal State Fullerton. He has been an adjunct professor since 2005. Steve likes to take the train, subway and bicycle – sometimes all three – to assignments and the newsroom. He is married to Karen E. Klein, a former journalist with Los Angeles Daily News, L.A. Times, Bloomberg and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and now vice president of content management for a bank. They have two grown sons, Andy and Matthew. They live in Pasadena. Steve recently watched all of “Star Trek” the remastered original season one on Amazon, so he has an inner nerd.

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